The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

Sure, you may try to claim that “pizza is a vegetable” or that it’s healthy because you put some broccoli on top. Yes, we’re just fooling ourselves — but if one food scientist has his way, we could all be eating truly nutritious pizza in the future. [More]

American kids are eating out at fast-food and full-service restaurants more than ever, and that makes it even more important what restaurants are serving to them. A new study of restaurant offerings by the Center for Science in the Public Interest shows that while they’re not as common as they were in the past, meals that include soda or other sugar-sweetened beverages are still common. [More]

As the saying goes, “One man’s burrito is another man’s dietary nightmare.” And because it’s not always easy to know exactly how many calories will be in that chorizo burrito, or which ingredients are part of a particular diet — whether it’s paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free, or what have you — Chipotle has released an online tool. [More]

It’s something most of us learned to do decades ago: you see an inviting package on the supermarket shelf. You pick it up, have a look at the front to see if you might like that flavor, and then flip it over to stare intently at the familiar white nutrition label on the back. Well now, finally, after much hemming and hawing, those nutrition labels are getting an overdue upgrade. [More]

Lawmakers in D.C. have introduced legislation intended to overhaul the marketing and labeling of processed foods — revising everything from the nutrition panel to the ingredients list to the use of terms like “natural” and “healthy.” [More]

Though there are surely those of you health-conscious readers out there who undoubtedly consume bucketloads of fruits and vegetables on a regular basis, the truth is most of us aren’t eating enough of that good, healthy stuff. That’s according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [More]

Pick up any package of food at the grocery store, turn it around, and there it is: the ubiquitous, standardized nutrition label. It’s second nature at this point: we all know exactly what it looks like, and what we can expect to find listed on it. [More]

Superstition and junk science will recommend all sorts of foods to aid in female fertility. Although anecdotal evidence suggests that some of these will work, the best way for to increase your babymaking capabilities is probably to eat healthily. [More]

The same guy who drank a glass of fat to demonstrate the lard-inducing effects of soft drinks is back. This time he shows how long you have to walk to burn off the calories from a can of soda. It takes three miles! That’s the distance from Union Square to Brooklyn in New York. [More]

While healthy eating may save you money in the long run on health care costs and extra-large sweatpants expenses, meeting the federal government’s new nutritional guidelines would require the average American family to spend more on food. In theory, it’s possible to eat nutritiously for cheap, but that’s not how things are playing out in real Americans’ diets. Studying adults in Washington state, researchers found that consuming the government’s recommended amount of just one nutrient–potassium–cost consumers an extra $380 per person, or $1520 per year for a family of four. [More]

Where do they come up with all those great ideas to make 500 different snack foods out of the same four crappy ingredients and then try to trick us into thinking they’re healthy? This amusing xtranormal video takes you inside a hypothetical product development meeting at a “Big Food” company. It starts off slow but then delivers hit after hit as they skewer each of the different labeling and ingredient tactics food manufacturers use, like adding Vitamin D to Cheetos and saying they “support healthy bones.” [More]

The FDA says the law that requires restaurant chains with more than 20 locations to post calorie counts also applies to other types of businesses, reports the Wall Street Journal. Specifically, movie theaters, airplanes, trains, food courts in grocery stores, and convenience stores are all considered chains and will soon have to start following the law. The agency hasn’t made up its mind yet whether things like salad bars in grocery stores will have to fall in line. The FDA will announce official guidelines in December. [More]

Though there are many differing explanations for why it’s happening, there’s no arguing that childhood obesity is on the rise in the U.S. The latest battleground over our kids’ waistlines is the school lunchroom, where nutritionists are attempting to make arguments for and against the continued sale of chocolate milk. [More]

Here’s a perfect example of why you should ignore what’s on the front of a product package and go straight to the nutritional info instead. Kraft’s Wheat Thins now come in a “100% Whole Grain” variety, which you might think translates into more fiber for your digestive tract. It even says on the front that one serving packs 22g of whole grain versus 11g for regular Wheat Thins. It turns out, however, that both crackers provide the same amount of dietary fiber and fat–and the whole grain version also has more sodium and is made with high fructose corn syrup. [More]

A federal judge ruled this week that Vitaminwater will not, as its labels promise, keep you “healthy as a horse.” Nor will it bring about a “healthy state of physical or mental being”. Instead, Vitaminwater is really just a sugary snack food; non-carbonated fruit coke disguised as a sports drink. Because it’s composed mostly of sugar and not vitamin-laden water, judge John Gleeson held that Vitaminwater’s absurd marketing claims were likely to mislead consumers. [More]